Chaitra Umesh Shetty - Vasco de Gama - Pasco School District

[Pages:15]NUS History Society E-Journal

VASCO DE GAMA, JOURNEY TO INDIA1: SIGNIFICANCE TO ASIA AND THE MODERN WORLD By Chaitra Umesh Shetty

In this excerpt from a journal about Portuguese explorers' first arrival to Calicut, in the South Indian state of Kerala, we see a number of issues surface that had significant influence during that time and continue to have residual resonance today. Historian Anthony Disney Booth describes the voyage as "a stage in the globalization of trade", "an occasion of unprecedented cultural encounters" and "a new route of exchange of influence between the extremities of Eurasia"2. The recurring theme in the article seems to be that of the novelty of this experience and this is interesting against the backdrop of the mood of the times.

The document is a reflection of the atmosphere of exploration in 15th century Europe and the attempts to explore new avenues for trade with the East. The "Mediterranean cities of Italy", and later the "commercial cities of the German Hanseatic League", "manufacturing and trading towns of Netherlands" and "great European metropolises of Paris and London" were all part of a "golden network of commercial exchange", reaping the benefits of trade with Asia3. During this period, all exchange of the precious commodities of spices and silk between East and West had to go through either the Islamic Arabs or the Venetians. There was intense competition amongst the

1 Ref to Appendix: excerpt from a journal. Vasco de Gama, Portuguese Voyages 1498-1663 (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1947) pp 27-38, cited in Documents in World History, CD ROM (Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2004), p.326-328 2 Anthony Disney Booth, Vasco Da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000), p. 11. 3 Anthony Esler, The Human Venture Vol II A Global History Since 1500 (New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2004), p. 365.

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European powers. In Portugal, Prince Henry the Navigator (1394 ? 1460) had organized and financed numerous maritime voyages of discovery and the development of infrastructure to support these efforts4. He was motivated by his hatred of Muslims and his quest for greatness for Portugal. He sought to partake in the West-African trade and to find Prester John, "a Christian king that was rumored to hold a large empire somewhere in Africa", with whom he might be able to "gain a decisive victory over the Muslims"5. Vasco de Gama was one among these Portuguese voyagers and his journey around the Cape of Good Hope to India proved to be an event of great significance.

This journal entry is an important piece of documentation of what Professor Sanjay Subrahmanyam, one of foremost experts on Vasco da Gama, describes as "the first Portuguese maritime expedition into the western Indian Ocean"6. The Indians were an entirely new people to de Gama and his men; they had strange hair, strange clothing, strange ornaments and strange "churches". The "many jewels of gold" that they wore were an obvious sign of the wealth of the natives as was the "fine cloth" that the King sent back with the two men who had gone to announce the arrival of de Gama and his fleet7. This would have been a promising sign to de Gama who was looking to form new commercial liaisons8. Though there were no problems with the displays of wealth, there was confusion aplenty in understanding the people, their religion and their traditions. When taken to a Hindu temple, the Portuguese thought they were in a church and that the central deity in the temple was a representation of the Virgin Mary. One of the

4 5 6 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), p. 95. 7 Documents in World History, CD ROM (Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2004), p. 326. 8

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possibilities Subramanyam proposes for their having thought this was the language barrier. Communication between the Portuguese and the locals was carried out in Arabic but the Arabic spoken by de Gama's men had been learnt in Maghreb (a region of northwest Africa) and very likely would have been different from the version of Arabic spoken in India9. This miscommunication led not only to the Portuguese misconstruing the religion and religious practices of the locals but also to their inadvertently offending the Indians. One instance of when they might have done this would have been when de Gama gave the holy earth given to him in the "church" "in charge of someone, giving [the Indians] to understand that he would put it on later"10. This would have come across as a lack of respect and deference for the local religious practices. The fact that upon arriving and under the guidance of a pilot sent by the king, the Portuguese did not anchor their ships "as near the shore as the king's pilot desired"11 and when told to unload the goods they had brought from home, they refused to bring the ships closer to shore would have riled the Indians and rubbed them the wrong way as well. Booth even goes so far as to claim that de Gama "prejudiced the future of European missions and commerce in the region by mistaking Hindus for Christians and offending his hosts so severely that, by report, `the entire land wished him ill'"12.

Despite the many misunderstandings that transpired between the Indians and the Portuguese, this trip paved the way for continued maritime trade, cultural and scientific exchange and later imperial conquest. In the journal entry although the king that de Gama meets in Calicut claims to regard the king of Portugal "as a friend and brother", this is not

9 Subrahmanyam, The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama, p. 95. 10 Documents in World History, CD ROM, p. 326. 11 Ibid. 12 Booth, Vasco Da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia, p. 13.

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indicative of a commitment of any sort on his part but rather a superficial acknowledgement of Portugal as a non-hostile entity13. This liaison, however lukewarm, proved to be extremely beneficial to Portugal because it meant they could circumvent the middlemen ? the Muslims and the Venetians ? and procure expensive Asian commodities at a fraction of the price they had earlier had to pay for them. This was a precursor to a revolutionary shift in power; Lisbon would become a major trading port and Portugal a trading power to be reckoned with. This had a ripple effect and added fuel to the race for power and profit. For India though, the arrival of the Portuguese was far less lucrative because the wool and canons the Portuguese had to offer were of little value to them. The superiority of the Portuguese in "navigation and nautical science" might have been something the Indians learnt and benefited from but not something that led to a substantial improvement in their economy14. As was the case with most early European explorations, despite the arrival of the Portuguese in India, "indigenous empires and trading states remained dominant and largely intact"15. The Portuguese came and engaged in commerce but this remained a relatively peripheral activity. However, what is significant is that the opening of new trade routes did subsequently allow for the transmission of religions ? Christianity to the East and Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam to Southeast Asia ? the shipping of Muslim pilgrims to Mecca and the transfer of technology between the East and the West16.

"By no means was Vasco's voyage necessarily the most important in the history of the Indian Ocean", but this documentation of that first arrival reflects the general

13 Documents in World History, CD ROM, p. 327. 14 Booth, Vasco Da Gama and the Linking of Europe and Asia, p. 72. 15 Ibid., p.11. 16 Ibid., p.15.

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attitude of condescension that the West seems to have had for the East and arguably still has today17. There is a strong sense of "othering", where an oversimplified negative and positive binary is set up with "the other" being attributed all the negative qualities and therefore one's own identity is defined and created as positive in contrast. We see evidence of this in the author's use of such terms as "ugly", "covetous", "ignorant", "phlegmatic", "unreliable" and "beasts" in his descriptions of the locals18. Furthermore there is an emphasis on the negligence and apathy that de Gama was subjected to in being made to wait for hours in the king's court and the insolence and lack of gratitude on the part of the king's officials in the account of their mockery of the Portuguese gifts for the king. These details are important to us as historians because we need to be careful not to read the document passively and accept everything as is portrayed by the narrator. The account is, as can be expected, biased in favor of the Portuguese and so we have to take it with a pinch of salt and try to read between the lines. Portuguese back home who read this would have formed an impression of the Indians as barbaric, in desperate need of education and civilization, and exploitable and these factors would have encouraged the imperialist desire. To be fair, we should keep in mind again the language barrier both sides had to overcome and that the difficulties in understanding each other would have bred misconceptions about the other's intentions. Moreover, though it isn't explicitly stated in the document, the peculiar religious ceremonies of the locals whom the Portuguese believed to be Christians might have stirred some suspicion in them of the Indians being Muslims and this may have tainted their opinions of them.

17 Ibid., p.13. 18 Documents in World History, CD ROM, p. 326 ? 328.

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This vivid account is a telling reminder of the importance of the politics of power and the forming of strategic alliances. These were crucial for economic progress then and still are today. We saw evidence of this in the translation of the culmination of interEuropean rivalry into New Imperialism in the 19th century. The aggressive expansion into and occupation of large parts of Asia meant that these traders from the West were no longer discrete marginal entities but huge dynamic forces that would shape both the geographical boundaries and the very identities of the nations they seized. Today, we deal with new frontiers. Equipped with the fruits of technology, we now travel further and faster but there are two sides to the coin. Scientific discovery has given rise to moral and ethical dilemmas and cultural cohesion has been accused of diluting tradition. However we choose to see it, it is undeniable that we would not be where we are today without the early voyagers who dared to venture into the unknown.

Appendix VASCO DE GAMA, JOURNEY TO INDIA Excerpt from de Gama's journal19

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"The city of Calicut is inhabited by Christians. They are of tawny complexion. Some of them have big beards and long hair, whilst others clip their hair short or shave the head, merely allowing a tuft to remain on the crown as a sign that they are Christians. They also wear moustaches. They pierce their ears and wear much gold in them. They go naked down to the waist, covering their lower extremities with very fine cotton stuffs. But it is only the most respectable who do this, for the others manage as best they are able.20

The women of this country, as a rule, are ugly and of small stature. They wear many jewels of gold around the neck, numerous bracelets on their arms, rings set with precious stones on their toes. All these people are well disposed and apparently of mild temper. At first sight they seem covetous and ignorant.

When we arrive at Calicut, the captain-major sent two men to the King with a message, informing him that an ambassador has arrived from the King of Portugal with letters.

19 Vasco de Gama, Portuguese Voyages 1498-1663 (London: J.M. Dent & Sons Ltd; New York: E.P. Dutton & Co., 1947) pp 27-38, cited in Documents in World History, CD ROM (Upper Saddle River: Prentice-Hall, 2004), p.326-328 20 The visitors thus became at once acquainted with the various castes constituting the population of Calicut, including the Nairs, or fighting caste of Malabar, who eat meat (which shows a single servile origin), but wear the thread of the Dwija (twice-born), rank next to the Brahmans, and practice polyandry; and the turbulent Moplah, who are descendents of Arab fathers and native women. These latter are the "native" Moors.

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The King presented the bearers of this message with much fine cloth. He sent word to the captain bidding him welcome.

A pilot accompanied our two men, with orders to take us to a place called Pandarani, below the place [Capua] where we anchored at first. At this time we were actually in front of the city of Calicut. We were told that the anchorage at this place to which we were to go was good, whilst at the place we were then was bad, with a stony bottom, which was quite true; and, moreover, that it was customary for the ships which came to this country to anchor there for the sake of safety. We ourselves did not feel comfortable, and the captain-major had no sooner received this royal message that he ordered the sails to be set, and we departed. We did not, however, anchor as near the shore as the king's pilot desired.

When we were at anchor, a message arrived informing the captain-major that the king was already in the city. At the same time the king sent a bale [governor], with other men of distinction, to Pandarani, to conduct the captain-major to where the king awaited him. This bale is always attended by two hundred armed men with swords and bucklers. As it was late when this message arrived, the captain-major deferred going.

On the following morning, they took us to a large church, and this is what we saw: The body of the church is as large as the monastery, all built of hewn stone and covered with tiles. At the main entrance rises a pillar of bronze as high as mast, on the top of which was perched a bird, apparently a cock. In addition to this, there was another pillar as high as a man, and very stout. In the centre of the body of the church rose a chapel, all built of hewn stone, with a bronze door sufficiently wide for a man to pass, and stone steps leading up to it. Within this sanctuary stood a small image which they

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